~x-steelfoot-x

Good news! I still have the ability to cry!
...Over a video game!
...In front of my little brother!

If you don't already have it, go buy Undertale as soon as you can. Even if you don't think it's for you, it is. If you have ever enjoyed a video game for its story, characters, and writing, you should pick it up. If you have ever formed an emotional attachment to something that isn't real (which you have, don't lie, you're on FA), you should pick it up. If you have ever felt any emotion at all over something you did in a video game and/or have a pulse, you should pick it up. If you're only interested in fighting monsters and gaining EXP, you should still pick this up. Even if the term "JRPG" makes you break out in hives, you in particular should pick this up because no matter how many screenshots you've seen of the game or how many times other people say it, it is not a JRPG but a string of puzzles, characters, emotional moments, pie recipes (I am so totally making that later), and skeleton jokes amalgamated into an experience difficult for me to describe outside of the lines at the top of this journal. There is bullet hell elements, but don't be afraid of them--I'm the clumsiest person I know and I still got through them in a fairly short time with enough determination.

Undertale is one of the strongest experiences I've had in gaming on this side of Planescape: Torment, and I hope that everyone gets the opportunity to play it.

My friend  neive needs help saving her mom's boyfriend's kitty! There's a whole bunch of other information over at her journal:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4814449/

Basically repost the link in your journal for a raffle entry for a picture, or donate money for more entries, and if you donate $20 you get a guaranteed drawing! More importantly, you get to save a kitty!

Thanks for reading, guys!

After all of that, I would feel like a terrible person if I didn't at least try to get some exposure for an animal that can be saved!

 dubstepz has a cat that was hit by a car a few months ago, and though much of it has healed, its leg has become infected, and it's far beyond saving at this point; an amputation will be required. Unfortunately, though it's a life-saving operation, vet bills aren't cheap, and she will require some assistance to get there; because of this, her commissions are now open, and she's accepting donations.

Her journal on this is here. Please give her a hand if you can!

(also, I am up too late)

It took me a couple days to recover from that, but I'm pretty sure at this point I'm okay now! Actually, at this point, it's been a few days, even, since I've felt 100% better. It was a week ago, I know, but... that's one of those things that sticks to you pretty tightly.

Guess this is kind of a bump-off journal. :P

I'm sorry, little orange kitty, for what happened today.

Maybe it happened because fate required it. Maybe you felt like it was time for it to happen, or just were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the end result is, you didn't make it across the road today.

I got to see it all happen, how they hit you, and though they tried to dodge you, they just kept moving, probably because they were in shock over what happened. I don't hate them for that; anyone knows that having something like that happen would be terrifying, and everyone would react differently, and they just happened to freeze and keep moving. We pulled over, though, to get you out of the road, and moved you to some nice, soft grass, so that maybe you could smell it and see the sky for those last few minutes. There was a vet just down the road, we know, but we saw what happened--there's nothing even the greatest vet on Earth could have done, much less one in a small town in Kentucky. Maybe Mom petting on you and telling you that you were a good kitty helped. I'm sorry I couldn't get out of the car; I was frozen in horror and pain at what had happened.

I didn't know you, but you were clearly someone's cat. No cat would be that clean or healthy if they weren't being taken care of by someone. Maybe you helped them run off mice, or played with their kids, or sat in their lap and purred all day when they needed it, or chased laser pointer dots for an hour. It's obvious that you led a great life, and I'm sorry it ended so abruptly.

But I'm glad that you were happy. I'm glad you died doing what you loved, and that though it wasn't instantaneous, you got to see the sun one last time, and got to feel someone pet you and hear their voice. I'm also glad that, though I'm not gonna stop being sad for some time, I'll remember you and be reminded to keep my eyes open on the road. Maybe your family will find you and give you a good burial, or heck, maybe you got up and walked home; I didn't see you laying there when we came back through. But there's three things at the very least I'm taking with me, so that you didn't die for no reason: first, stay alert while driving, which I mentioned before, but it bears repeating; second, love and take care of your pets, because you never know what will happen tomorrow; and third, for those very same reasons, take care of yourself and be happy, and try new things, and learn stuff every day, because you only get one pass through. Oh, and fourth: scary things don't happen on dark and stormy nights to cathedral music; they happen on Mondays at 3 in the afternoon while you're wondering if there will ever be anything good on the radio.

I've pet my cats for you today, little orange kitty. I hope you're in a better place, and I hope that I honor you with this eulogy. Go hang out with  kululu-xiao's kitty Squeak for us, please.

(This journal is likely to be deleted tomorrow morning, I just need to let this out.)

I've been trapped in an RV for 10 days with four people and four cats, then waited about an extra 4 days for us to get internet at our new house in Kentucky. I miss California already. I didn't get to say goodbye to just about anyone I knew there. Winter is actually cold now, and I haven't worn, much less purchased, jeans in over six years. There's mosquitoes to deal with, as evidenced by the constellation of bumps on my left leg (strangely, they're avoiding my right, tastes bad maybe?). The closest Starbucks is considerably farther away than for it to be anything more than a treat now. And I'll be going into detail about the movers in a moment, but they were terrible.

That said... I'm now within visiting range of my extended family (within a dozen miles of my mother's parents, even!),  kululu-xiao and  gforce are much closer and it's actually plausible that I can go hang out with them sometime, my room is actually somewhat larger (and painted now, it's a kind of sunset yellow that I'll be expanding on a bit later), there's a Cracker Barrel within walking distance of our house (which I haven't had in years), I have a ready and willing tutor for lapidary and jewelry-making, and perhaps most importantly, there's a lock on my door, which means I feel much safer drawing.

The movers, however. For a short example, I found my own computer tower packed with the downstairs office's equipment and absolutely nothing that belonged with it, and then when I did find the rest of my computer, the box was entirely devoid of protective material. No bubble wrap or paper to be found. Thankfully all of it is unharmed, but still, this is like $300 or more worth of accessories, and it didn't even warrant a tissue down in there to keep my power strip from jamming itself through my monitor? And truly, that's not even the worst of it--we keep finding boxes marked "kitchen" filled with things that didn't belong in the kitchen, boxes previously used and labeled for other peoples' houses that we got for disposing of trash and recyclable paper were used for our house (and summarily mismanaged, they followed the directions on the boxes regardless of who wrote them and when...), my furniture was scattered everywhere, and since they brought a grand total of three people (one of them they hired off of Craigslist before they got here), half of our stuff just got dropped into the garage because they had been working since 9AM and it was nearly 12 hours later. Oh, and not a one of our beds was assembled or even in the right place. That was fun the first night. I know, first-world problems, but... seriously. This is our stuff, stuff that we take care of and protect, and you're basically just gonna stick your arm out and scrape it all off of our desks into a box with no protection? Ugh.

Anyways, short version: I'm on the other side of the country now. Again. And I can't find any of my stuff. But at least I'm happy!

 luckypan needs a kidney. No, seriously. I mean, sometimes I kid around in plug journals like this, but she's seriously in renal failure and has been since last year. You can help her by donating your kidney.

That last part I'm kidding about (mostly), but you actually can donate money directly to her through a charity via this link:

http://www.helphopelive.org/find-a-.....71387B19F49008

It's much less painful than kidney donation surgery, doesn't leave scars, and will cover more things, like pain medicine and anti-rejection medicine and her stay in the hospital.

Please send a couple of dollars her way so that she can get to feeling better and enjoying having kidneys again. :3

 neive's dog Axel has fallen very ill, and she needs to scrounge up some emergency commissions to cover the incoming vet bills.

More info on what's going on (as well as a particularly nasty picture of something that probably shouldn't be coming out of a dog's mouth) can be found at her journal:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2893853/

You probably should commission her anyways because her artwork is adorable and awesome, just now would be a really good time to start. XP

Thanks for reading!

 neive is in need of some money, and I totally recommend you go commission her right now. I've picked up a couple from her here recently, and all of them have been gorgeous. Plus, she's an absolute doll to commission. Seriously. <3

As if buying an amazing commission that looks like this isn't enough (and seriously, read the comment I left on that one, that was an absolutely amazing thing for her to do), she's also having a little raffle for anyone who buys a commission from her, or promotes her artwork in a journal. Her art's pretty cool, I'd say, but I'm more concerned about her getting food and books for school. She's had it pretty rough here recently in a financial sense, and everything that you can do for her helps significantly. c:

Here's her page so you can see how cool her art is: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/neive/
And the journal with all the details on what to do, so you can have cool art too: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2568721/

Now go and throw all of your money at her! XP More seriously, though, a $15 bust can get her food for a couple days, and an awesome $25 detailed pinup thing will put her on her way to her books for sure. :3

Thanks guys!

We're screwed.

Currently we, as a family of 5, are completely out of money. Long story short, Dad irrevocably lost his job several years ago due to a nebulous autoimmune illness that nothing seems to treat (besides massive--and I mean MASSIVE--doses of Prednisone), and no one else is in any kind of position to get a job. We're now officially out of any money we've ever had. The next disability check comes in two weeks from now. Since I've got the least workload, or at least it seems like I have the least workload, I've got a slightly greater amount of free time than anyone else, meaning I'm going to try to find some way to scrounge up some money.

Since I can't find work anywhere, that means I'm going to the next best thing I can find, which means doing artwork commissions, something that I'm not used to doing but will do anyways because I have to help more than just making sure that the housework is getting done.

Though I don't have much of a gallery, my prices are very freeform, and I promise I'll do my best to draw what you want me to. There are a couple things I won't draw, though (namely porn, macro/micro, vore, and a couple other weird fetishy things), but otherwise I'm fine with a lot of stuff.

Please let me know through notes if you want to commission me! I'll read them as quickly as I see them, and we'll talk about prices and things of that nature, as well as my PayPal account and so on.

Thank you for considering me!

People on my watch list frequently post journals asking to take commissions because of some financial thing or other. These people all need your help, but I only have one journal visible on my page at a time, so I figure it would be best to put them all in a single journal where they can all be seen at once.

The List

 chevi - Chevi is a wonderful friend of mine, and has been for quite some time! Recently, though, she's had to refund a commissioner that bought a ton of stuff from her at once, but doesn't have the funds on her to do a full refund to the guy. D: She's offering them at a discount of ~33% or more, and she now very rarely opens commissions, so now's your chance to get some of her adorable art! Details are here on her commission account's journal.

 aliceenrouge - Alice is perennially troubled by money issues, which is sad because her artwork is just so beautiful. They do some downright gorgeous pin-ups, and are just about perfect for anyone who might want something racy for, say, Valentine's Day. :3

 belsevuka - A wonderful artist who got their FA account just two months ago, Belsevuka has some stunning color and line work. He has a rather urgent phone bill that needs to be paid, or else he'll lose not only his phone (which he uses for business stuff), but also his internet access--which is just awful for someone whose art is so pretty!

 x-steelfoot-x - Ah, what the heck, I'll put myself up here, too. XP There's nothing particularly urgent about myself, other than the fact that my hard drive is almost 10 years old now and I have a completely empty checking account, but I'll draw for you if you want! I don't really have any recent commission info, so feel free to talk with me about it. x3 The others are definitely more urgent, though!

Thanks for considering any of them! They need quite a bit of financial help, and would be thankful for anything that you gave them. :3

One of the folks I watch,  belsevuka, does really awesome artwork. His coloring work is just wonderful, especially! It always brightens my day when I get to see some new artwork from him. :3

However, he also needs money, as described in his journal. That means he is taking commissions, which means that you can get some of his art, which he'll post and I'll see and it'll brighten my previously-mentioned day, as well as yours because you get awesome art. And so, it'll all work out.

The most important thing about this, though, is if he doesn't get this money, he loses internet service. That means he'll stop uploading things entirely. And that's even more terrible than Lex Luthor stealing 40 cakes.

Basically, where I'm going is, you should commission Belsevuka and make sure he gets to keep his internet. :3

For those of you that get the title joke, you're a colossal nerd, but it totally fits as to what's going on. XP

Anyways, I've discovered a small pattern on how I do artwork: frequently I'll lapse into something that seems like I've completely stopped drawing for no reason. I'm still in a full creativity mode, but cannot seem to do anything with it; I want to draw, but somehow nothing comes out of the pen.

And then, it happens.

It starts with a scribble or two, just body outlines. Maybe a hand here, an arm there, an ear or a tail. Then things start to come together, and I start looking for new parts--things that I never drew but I need an idea for. And then, eventually, after the dust clears and my pen finally stops moving after quite a few days, it's finished, and I have created a new character.

At this point, the process is now around its middle phase, where I'm searching for parts. The palette is down, the general body design is in, shapes are being drawn, but there's just a couple little bits that I've not worked out yet, the tail and ears being the biggest offenders. All of this will be worked out, though, and it'll turn out beautifully. :3 It's definitely a she, so her refsheet will hopefully be done by Christmas (as well as my Secret Santa gift, which is in a planning stage right now).

And this is why I've not posted anything in eight forevers. I can't draw anything else yet because my entire creative brain is off working on what tail to give the new character. :P Hopefully after she's done I'll start posting again!

It seems as if I have bit off far more than I can chew for day 3 of my one-a-day deal! XP I ended up doing something that I've never really done before (multiple characters, in this case the same character twice for a refsheet) and apparently I just work really slow. XP

Since the picture is going to go into vast detail about the character (as well as being an ENORMOUS DRAWING in the first place), I'm going to end up counting it as both day 3 and 4 for the purposes of the daily picture. Seriously I've been working on these poses for hours, my wrist is killing me :c

Moral: Steely should draw one character at a time until he gets the ability to draw characters faster.

I don't personally thank everyone who watches me and I never have really shown anything to act thankful, but I really am. :3 Thank you all for watching me! I know I never really draw anything, but I try, and it means a lot and makes me feel good about what I draw.

Furthermore, in cased you missed the last journal, GO BUY THINGS FROM  AliceEnRouge because:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1898440/

My friend's computer has died right in the middle of her term final projects, what is worse, she is unable to afford to fix her computer, or buy a new computer to replace her old clunker (about the same price as fixing the mother board would be). I would really like to help her out, but I have very little money myself. I have donated all of my tip money to help her. She is barely making ends meet as it is and can simply not afford this. School is important and I want her to be able to finish it, so I will be taking some commissions to help her.

I have very limited time myself to do commissions, so I can only take regular commission slots for lineart and cell shading commissions. If you are, however, looking for a nice, fully painted illustration, I am also holding an auction for 2 of these slots.

My tip jar and requests are still open here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1067275/ but I will be unable to continue working on them until after I complete these commissions. If I do not get any, I will be looking for other work elsewhere to raise the money and will have even less time to do requests again.

If you could help to spread a word about this journal, you will have my eternal gratitude!

Most importantly, however, Alice's artwork is amazing. Just look at these! They're awesome and you should totally watch her even if you don't have any money since her art is so cute. :3

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1898440/

My friend's computer has died right in the middle of her term final projects, what is worse, she is unable to afford to fix her computer, or buy a new computer to replace her old clunker (about the same price as fixing the mother board would be). I would really like to help her out, but I have very little money myself. I have donated all of my tip money to help her. She is barely making ends meet as it is and can simply not afford this. School is important and I want her to be able to finish it, so I will be taking some commissions to help her.

I have very limited time myself to do commissions, so I can only take regular commission slots for lineart and cell shading commissions. If you are, however, looking for a nice, fully painted illustration, I am also holding an auction for 2 of these slots.

My tip jar and requests are still open here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1067275/ but I will be unable to continue working on them until after I complete these commissions. If I do not get any, I will be looking for other work elsewhere to raise the money and will have even less time to do requests again.

If you could help to spread a word about this journal, you will have my eternal gratitude!

Most importantly, however, Alice's artwork is amazing. Just look at these! They're awesome and you should totally watch her even if you don't have any money since her art is so cute. :3

I just removed everything that's not my artwork from my gallery. If you're wondering who made the things that I removed, they were made by  spazzykoneko and  yuuri a few years ago. I also removed an old sketch or two that went nowhere. Now that I'm doing my own artwork, I can fill my gallery with things that I did and I like. :3

I'm still taking a full color commission for $20 to help me fill my gallery with things I did! Here's stuff I like to do/will not do:

GOOD
-Anything up to "Mature" (anywhere from dress clothes to skin/fur)
-Neat Poses
-Cool Outfits
-Boys or Girls, doesn't matter to me (I haven't done a guy yet though)
-Pretty much anything fairly agreeable and non-fetishy

BAD
-Morbid Obesity/Inflation (a little bit of extra weight is fine though :> )
-Hermaphrodite Characters
-Blood/Gore/Death/Pain/Etc.
-Excrement
-Anything "Adult"
-Probably things I can't/don't want to think of

Okay, sooooo... The last journal went poorly. XP Pretty sure that it's because I only have like three real drawings in my gallery, so I'm offering super cheap, super nice commissions. :o Full color, all shaded and round and soft-looking, with a 1-character limit, just $20. I can only accept one at a time and it's not gonna be first-come, first-serve, so note me with whatever ya want me to draw and I'll see if I can work something out! :3 Even then if I like yours I may end up taking more than one. Who knows?

Anyways, the obligatory list of things I will/won't do follows.

GOOD
-Anything up to "Mature" (anywhere from dress clothes to skin/fur)
-Neat Poses
-Cool Outfits
-Boys or Girls, doesn't matter to me (I haven't done a guy yet though)
-Pretty much anything fairly agreeable and non-fetishy

BAD
-Morbid Obesity/Inflation (a little bit of extra weight is fine though :> )
-Hermaphrodite Characters
-Blood/Gore/Death/Pain/Etc.
-Excrement
-Anything "Adult"
-Probably things I can't/don't want to think of

I'm kind of a slow worker since I'm not quite used to digital work yet, but don't worry, I'll make it worth the wait! :3

Thanks for considering me!

Okay folks, I'm opening up a single commission slot for... well, just about any grade of drawing you want me to do, really. Sketch, ink, flat-color, shaded, anything, but it'll all be digital.

BASE PRICES

$5 - Sketch. Be warned, my sketches can get kinda hairy and weird, but I'll do my best to refine them!
$10 - Inked Outline. This pretty much speaks for itself. XP Just a nice simple ink, refined and smoother than the sketch. Kinda like a coloring book.
$20 - Flat Colors. Nice and simple, no shading though.
$25 - Shaded Picture. Complete! This may take a while, but I'll try to make it worth the wait!

ADD-ONS

$0 - Derpy Background. This is free and very simple; it'll take like ten seconds for me to make so I'm not gonna charge you for it. :3 See this picture for an example. Flat-color minimum.
.
Simple Backgrounds:
-Sketch: $1
-Inked Drawing: $2.50
-Flat-color: $3.50
-Shaded: $5
Backgrounds are on the same "grade" as the foreground, i.e. if you get a flat-color picture you'll end up with a flat-color background. Simple backgrounds are things like bedrooms or simple outdoorsy-type scenes.

Complex Backgrounds:
-Sketch: $2
-Inked Drawing: $5
-Flat-color: $7
-Shaded: 10
As with the above, these will be on the same grade as the foreground. Complex backgrounds are things that'll take me a good bit of detail and time to draw, such as city scenes, particularly detailed rooms, and things with a lot of "background" flavor.

Nudity: $5. I will do artistic nudes like in this picture, but it's somewhat more time- and energy-consuming than normal. I can't do penises well either, but I'm fairly okay with it.

THINGS I WILL NOT DO

There's some stuff I just can't draw. I have limits as to what I'm willing to do. Chances are if it's "weird" or particularly out there, I won't accept your commission. Here's a (by no means comprehensive) list of things I'm not willing to do:

-Babyfurs
-Inflation/Morbid Obesity (a little squish is fine though, I do like characters with a little extra :3 )
-Excrement
-Herms
-Anything Overtly Sexual (i.e. the actual act of sex or anything sexually motivated)
-Gore/Blood (I really can't stand to see anyone injured, much less draw it :c )
-Vore
-Cub Anything

There's probably other stuff that I'm not thinking of, too, so the usual disclaimer applies: I reserve the right to refuse to take a commission for any reason.

This also isn't a first-come, first-served thing; if you see someone has asked for something and I haven't said anything about closing commissions until I finish, you're free to send me what you want. :3

Please send me what you want over notes! I will read comments, but notes tend to get my attention better. Plus it gives ya some privacy. x3

Looking forward to working with someone! Thanks for giving me consideration! :3

Looks like my hard drive is dying and I'm completely out of money, so that means that I'm exploring the option of opening commissions. Since my artwork is pretty by and large unposted on this account, I'll probably be uploading at least one piece or so of my artwork as an example.

Keep checking this space, I'll probably be posting a journal later with prices and do's/don'ts and things of that nature, plus possibly uploading an example of where I am right now. Trust me, I'm better now than this account shows. x3

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35374462/.....8-Ruling-FINAL

Hooray!

Congratulations on your win, gay folk of California. :3

https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/

*F5 F5 F5 F5 F5*

FASTER DAMMIT

 spazzykoneko and  darkduck64 are having an auction! You get a picture from Spazzy and a story from DarkDuck if you win. Go bid so they can get money to go to conventions. x3

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1477971/

And directly to the auction if you don't want to jump to another page:

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1017199.html?

No, seriously. I'm tired of not having any money and I can't find a job :c

My commissions will be pretty cheap since I'm definitely not the best in the world, have a lame scanner, and I really haven't uploaded anything I've drawn recently (that will change shortly, I hope!). I'm thinking $20-ish for a fully colored drawing? A super-quick sketch would be like $1, $5 would be something a little cleaner but still lines, $15-ish for a flat-colored work. Something like that. Obviously it'll be a little more detailed than that due to multiple characters and complex environments and such, but at this point everything is a concept. Oh, and all of it will be hand drawn; I'd be willing to ship it to you, even, so long as you covered shipping. :3

Also I wouldn't be able to do porn. Artistic nudity would probably be as high as I get, something like this would be about my maximum. Couple more rules than that by the end of it all, and I'd still reserve the right to refuse a commission for any reason (i.e. I didn't cover it in my list of stuff that I won't draw, etc.) but generally I'd be as good about it as possible.

So if I opened commissions sometime, what would you all think? Would you buy them? Gimme some feedback, I'd surely appreciate it :3

Last night's rumor about Dio being dead was false.

Unfortunately, this morning's version is true. Died at 7:45AM today according to his wife.

I don't think things can get any worse unless Ozzy died today.

Rest in Peace, Dio.